NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — After hearing testimony from 35 witnesses over five days and weighing a mountain of evidence, a Montgomery County jury took about nine hours to find Blair Watts guilty of first-degree murder in the death of business partner Jennifer Brown in her Limerick home in January.
While in deliberation on Wednesday afternoon, the jury asked the judge what would happen if they could not all agree on first-degree murder, and they asked to have the testimony from the medical examiner read back to them, fueling speculation that they were close to a verdict for third-degree murder.
About 15 minutes after hearing the testimony read back, the jury returned and surprised even the judge by finding Watts guilty of first-degree murder.
After the verdict was read, Watts dropped his chin to his chest and slowly shook his head. Immediately following, the judge sentenced him to life in prison.
“I didn’t kill Jennifer Brown,” Watts said as he was led from the courtroom.
“He's been saying that from the beginning,” said prosecutor Ed McCann, “but we just spent five days proving that he did.”
Watts’ lawyer, Michael Coard, argued the prosecutors failed to prove the elements needed for a murder conviction. However, McCann said testimony from the medical examiner, Dr. Ian Hood, was key to the first-degree murder charge.
Hood ruled Brown’s death a homicide by unspecified means, consistent with asphyxia, testifying injuries were consistent with someone holding a pillow over her face with their forearm.
“Clearly, when you cut someone's ability to breathe off for three to four minutes, … at some point during that time process, … you cross over to having a specific intent to kill,” McCann said.
Also key to their case, he said, was cell phone data that disputed statements Watts gave to police and showed that he had Brown’s phone in his possession after her death, when $17,000 was transferred from her account to his.
Prosecutors said 43-year-old Brown was chasing down her dream of opening a restaurant. Between August and December of last year, she had given her friend, 33-year-old Watts, $23,000. Prosecutors said Watts spent almost all of that money on himself and was stringing Brown along, promising several times that the restaurant was going to open within weeks.
However, they presented evidence that they said shows Watts didn’t even have a lease on a space for the restaurant, despite telling Brown multiple times that he would soon have keys to the new place.
According to McCann, Watts found out on Dec. 28, 2022, that the owners of the building he was hoping to lease from were not going to rent to him. Six days later, Brown was dead.
Prosecutors presented evidence at trial that Watts reached out to the owners of the building, saying he had money for a down payment — just hours after he had used Brown’s phone to transfer $17,000 to himself.
Watts was the last person to see her on Jan. 3. He said he had offered to watch her son so she could take a break because she was stressed and overwhelmed. She was reported missing the next day, Jan. 4.
Police body cam videos, which were shared during the trial, showed the interaction between Watts and the officers who arrived at Brown’s house when she was first reported missing. Watts spoke at length to them, falsely claiming Brown was addicted to drugs. He also led police to believe a neighbor was involved in her disappearance, but that man was later cleared.
Prosecutors said Watts was “pointing fingers in every direction to divert attention from himself.”
The two-week search for Brown received national attention. Her body was found, buried in a shallow grave behind an industrial building in Royersford.
Reacting to the verdict, Jennifer Brown’s aunt, Diane Brehm said, “It will never bring her back, but at least I know he will never walk out and hurt another family again the way he’s destroyed ours.”